Newsletter

• Ensure your student eats breakfast, this is the most important meal of the day.
• Ensure your student is staying hydrated.
• Ensure your student is getting a good nights sleep.
• Promote consistent reading, 20 minutes per night.
• Encourage to read the newspaper or magazine at least once per week and then discuss what they read.
• Encourage your student to practice everyday math skills, for example your grocery budget.
• Play games that involve numbers.
• Encourage your student to connect what they've learned in math to their everyday life.

March 24th: Spring Picture Day- Must order ahead of or day of.

March 24th: MCA Testing Begins (Grades 3-8)

March 28th: MPR Assembly for K-5th grade Students- Julie Johnson

• March Birthdays celebrated

April 4th: Butter Braid Orders DUE!

April 7th: Spring Clubs Begin this week!

April 16th: NMFA Board Meeting- 4:00 PM

April 18th: No School Contract Holiday K-8

April 21: No School (Professional Development - LETRS Training)

April 28st - May 2 Coin Wars Fundraiser

May 9: Annual NMFA School Carnival

May 22: All School Music Concert 9:00 AM

JUNE DATES

June 3 :Wilderness Inquiry Field Trip Grades 4-8

June 4: Valleyfair for Middle School

June 5: K and 8th Grade Graduation

June 6: Track and Field Day / Last Student Day of School

Reading: We are continuing our Love Makes a Family Unit. In class we are learning the sounds: -ck, -th, -all, -oll, -ull. As well as adding detail to our sentences.

Math: Working on addition problems through 20.

Social Studies: Continuing our learning of the world around us and maps!

Science: We are learning about animals and their habitats.

At Home: Students can work on writing details in sentences and solving addition problems up to 20

Reading: Winter Wonderland Unit: How different animals and plants survive in the winter and working on blending CVC words and learning the vowels

Math: Working on identifying and counting from 15-31.

Social Studies: Continuing our focus on community helpers.

Science: We are focusing on animals.

At Home: Work on numbers 1-31, letter names and sounds, and recognition and blending CVC words

Reading: Reading Freddie Ramos chapter books and students will be working on retelling story parts and describing how the characters are feeling in their writing notebooks.

Math: Working on 3D shapes, time, money, and 3-digit addition.

Social Studies: Reading about communities, resources, and family histories.

Science: Learning about Earth and it's resources.

At Home: Reading is a very important skill that should be practiced at home daily. I also started sending homework for the students to complete and return to school. It will not be every day but a few times a week.

Reading: Animal kingdoms, life cycles, and adaptations

Math: Measurements of length, volume, mass, and time. Also revisiting fractions

Social Studies: Changes over time from ancient to modern, and our countries history

Science: Environments and habitats

At Home: Students can practice measuring things around the house and measuring for recipes

Reading: We are continuing to learn about the American Revolution.

Math: We will continue to work with fractions and input/output problems.

Social Studies: We are finishing our state flip books and focusing on state locations and capitals.

Science: We are studying the weather.

At Home: Work on multiplication and division facts!

Social Studies: We will be finishing up learning about the colonies and will be moving onto how our nation grew and how the constitution came to be. Science: We will be working on experiments on how to land on Mars. We will be studying surface collisions, air collisions, rock collections, and analyzing water samples

At Home: Spending more time reading chapter books at home and to practice decimals. This includes rounding, adding, subtracting, and knowing decimal place values.

ELA: Students will continue reading Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, Misty Copeland’s memoir, as part of their yearlong exploration of coming-of-age experiences. Through Copeland’s story, they’ll examine the power of artistic expression and the challenges faced by female artists of color. Students will also study the impact of women in the visual arts, analyzing works from the Guerrilla Girls, Ruth Asawa, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, the Gee’s Bend quilters, and Favianna Rodriguez. By engaging with memoirs, articles, interviews, and artwork, students will discuss how identity shapes artistic expression and how art can drive social change.

Math: Focusing on Geometry

Social Studies: Celebrating Women’s History Month by exploring the contributions of influential women throughout history.

Science:

ELA: Reading A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning play about belonging, the American Dream, and the impact of racial discrimination. Set in 1950s Chicago, the story follows the Younger family as they navigate economic struggles and systemic housing barriers while holding onto their dreams for a better future.

Math: Focusing on Geometry

Social Studies: Celebrating Women’s History Month by exploring the contributions of influential women throughout history.

Science: Genetics/Heredity

ELA: Diving into George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a powerful allegory about power, political corruption, and the dangers of tyranny. Orwell’s novel, inspired by the real-life atrocities committed under Joseph Stalin’s rule, serves as both a historical critique and a warning about the manipulation of language and propaganda.

Math: Focusing on Exponential functions/linear functions

Social Studies: Celebrating Women’s History Month by exploring the contributions of influential women throughout history.

Science: Atoms and Periodic Table

PE: During the month of March, all students will be working on a bowling unit and pickle ball unit.

Health: Grades 5-8 will be starting a unit of vaping and how it affects your life. The curriculum is based from "Catch My Breath" and focuses on the risks of E-cigarettes and vaping.

Music: We will be working on:

• K/1: Instrument families, solfege, and singing as a group
• 2/3: Finishing our unit on instruments of the orchestra, rhythms, note reading, and singing as a group.
• 4th: Recorder, playing as a group, reading music.
• 5th: Singing as a group, reading rhythms, playing instruments as a group.
• 6th-8th: Learning the ukulele basics and playing as a group.

Art: We will be working on:

• K/1: Color wheel and Collages
• 2/3: Self Portraits
• 4/5: Self Portraits and 'Reverse Painting"
• 6th-8th: Miniatures with clay

Families, please report your students absence as soon as you know they will be gone. You have multiple options to submit attendance. You may call and leave a message on the attendance line, you can submit through the JMC Family Portal, you can text or email: attendance@nmfamn.org or you can submit the absence via the attendance link on the website.

If you have not submitted the absence by 9:30AM, you will receive a call notifying that your student is absent. Students are marked tardy after 7:45AM and MUST BE SIGNED IN.

School buses begin to arrive at the school by 7:20AM and typically depart the school by 2:07PM. If there is an issue with your student's bus route, please start by contacting the transportation company directly.

If your student will not be riding the bus home from school, please call and notify the front desk no later than 1:00PM. We also kindly ask that if possible to avoid picking up students at the front desk at 1:45PM as the buses are lined up and we have students walking out to buses starting at 1:55PM.

Students who live in district ISD 622 please contact them at 651-621-1980. Students on these routes are also able to download the K12 Bus app. Please reach out to ISD 622 with information on how to login.

Student who live in East St. Paul please contact our vendor at 612-808-8868.

JMC offers parents the ability to view their students, grades, attendance, and more by logging into your family portal account. Use the button below to head to the login page. You can also download the JMC Family App in your mobile phone's app store. The mobile pin is 0691. If you do not know your username or password, please contact the front desk or email info@nmfamn.org to obtain the information.

All students are able to receive 1 breakfast and 1 lunch daily, free of charge. However we still ask that families fill out the alternative application for education benefits. Doing so can help NMFA receive funding for field trip grants and more. You can find a copy of this application by clicking the button below.

If your student brings a home lunch and takes a school milk, they will be charge 38 cents for the milk. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the milk for free unless it is taken with a school meal.

If your student is sick, we kindly ask that you follow these guidelines on when to keep your student(s) home:

• A fever of 100.0 or higher
• A positive test (Flu, RSV, COVID, ect.)
• Any contagious virus/disease confirmed by your doctor
• If your student is excessively coughing and is uncomfortable
• If your student has vomited or has had diarrhea in the last 24 hours

If you have any questions on when to keep your student home, please let us know.

Know someone who is interested in our school?

We are always accepting applications for enrollment!

The NMFA School Board meets the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 4:00PM at the school. The board meetings are open to the public and anyone can attend. If you are interested in joining the school board and making a difference for our students please reach out to the school for more info.

Current Board Members:

Mike Leary: Board Chair

Kyle Johnson: Teacher/Treasurer

David Isaacson: Teacher Member

Joe Palkowitsch: Parent Member

Barbara Smith: Parent Member

Child Tax Credit

• Families may qualify for a Child Tax Credit of $1,750 per qualifying child with no limit on the number of children claimed. They can receive a refund even if they do not owe tax.
• For more information visit our Child Tax Credit webpage or watch our video on the Child Tax Credit.

K-12 Credit and Subtraction

• Minnesota has two tax relief programs for families with children in kindergarten through 12th grade: the K-12 Education Subtraction and K-12 Education Credit. Both programs help lower taxes and may provide a larger refund
• For more information visit our K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit webpage or watch our video on the K-12 Education Credit and Subtraction.

Free Tax Preparation

• Families may qualify for free tax preparation through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) or AARP Tax-Aide. These programs prepare federal and state income tax and property tax refund returns.

To find a free tax site near you visit our free tax preparation webpage

Email: info@nmfamn.org
Website: www.nmfamn.org
Location: 2350 Helen Street North, North Saint Paul, MN, USA
Phone: (651)300-6300
Facebook: https://facebook.com/NorthMetroFlexAcademy/

o Debbie Kranz ~ Principal dkranz@nmfamn.org

o Dave Isaacson ~ Special Education Coordinator disaacson@nmfamn.org

o Chelsea Smieja ~ Operations Manager csmieja@nmfamn.org

o Jenny Hubin ~ Office Assistant jhubin@nmfamn.org